You've heard it before: every industry is getting transformed by technology, and law firms are getting left behind.

“I think we're in the middle an information revolution, and the legal industry just hasn't caught up,” said Scott Rechtschaffen, Littler's chief knowledge officer. But he sure is doing what he can to row against that current.

Since 2001 the Cornell-educated lawyer and 30-year veteran of Littler has managed a group of developers and dedicated lawyers on what he likes to call the firm's “R&D team.” And they just won't stop rolling out new products and processes designed to scale back the number of billable hours a client can expect to pay for.